I have always dreamed of catching a tarpon, and have only hooked one once off of a pier.  (I was not among the 5% of people who actually get those monsters to the beach.) 

I pulled my kayak out about 5am Sat. 7/19 at Navarre Beach.  Like my 1st try last Sunday, I was only targeting tarpon (used a 7/0 circle hook/100lb mono leader and a lure ready for casting), but Needtofish did catch three 10-15lb throw-back kings.   I didn’t even spot a tarpon last Sunday, but did manage to catch a personal best 11lb bonito on one rod and a small shark on the other.  Seas were again calm, but dead-calm on this day-water met the sand like a lake-perfect for sight-fishing tarpon.

Not much happening early, but I did manage to catch a 9lb over-sized redfish at 8am.  I had only seen 1 tarpon roll by 9am, so I decided to venture away from the vicinity of the pier down the beach to enjoy the glassy water with no wind to paddle against and beautiful view-Oh, and to hope to see tarpon. 

At 10am, I saw a tarpon roll on the surface in front of me, but 10 seconds later my rod goes screaming in back of me!  As the fish is taking out line, I can see that it is a tarpon, but when he jumped, I could see it was a BIG tarpon.  A conservative estimate of the 7 footer would be 125lbs, which is about twice the weight of my kayak.  Well, he jumped up and spit the hook out.  I wish that I could have gotten a picture for you to see, but it is etched on my mind because he jumped clear out of the water in a lateral position about 4-ft above the water-an awesome sight!!!  Below is a visual, but just think longer and thicker (about 2.5 ft bellow to back)

He ate my last frozen LY, so I knew I wanted to catch some LYs or threadfin herring.  Luckily, I was able to catch (two) foot-long LY’s and a few moonfish.  (Do they eat moonfish?) At 11:30am, my same Dale Cecil custom rod goes off and this time, I tried to make sure the line was tight when he jumped.  This jump was your typical tarpon skyrocket leap and this one “only” weighs about 80lbs.  At that point, my 100lb leader breaks in half.  

At noon, my other rod starts screaming that had the other LY on it!   This one did not jump, so I thought maybe I had a chance of getting this tarpon in!!!!  Not a chance, because it was a shark!  Not quite as big as the kayak shark that I had landed a month ago, which ended up being the largest fish in the tournament by almost 30lbs. (See story on previous post that ending up   http://pensacolafishingforum.com/fishingforum/Topic130068-36-1.aspx), but still was 5ft long weighing about 50lbs.   I got this one to the kayak and just cut the line.  By this time, the wind had picked up, and I made my way back.  On this memorable day, I also saw 4-5 other tarpon roll, 4 manta rays jumping out of the water and 1 small mako shark jump out of the water and several schools of Spanish Mackerel, which I just enjoyed watching smash the surface rather than straying from my goal of hooking a tarpon in my kayak. 

15' Ocean Kayak Prowler - Navarre, FL

when you say a 2' long LY...are you talking about ladyfish/skipjacks?

_________________

Josh

SWEET OKOLE

'91    23FT TROPHY

200 YAMAHA